the apprentice

names

names of those who doesn’t have a name
anymore, carved into the flesh
of the stones.

names of those who were buried below
and long time forgotten by the walking
above.

these stones were uprooted,
crushed and displaced;
aching teeth in the old man’s gums.

some are peeking through grass
some are now paving the road
bashfully hiding the names
in the dirt.

When I was in the elementary school I was walking through the park on my way to the tennis courts. I always saw some “odd” looking stones with the names carved on them
with the alphabet I didn’t know, back then.

Later I learned that these stones where the gravestones from the destroyed during the WWII old Jewish cemetery. People who lived nearby used these rocks as a pavement. After the war Soviets, built a park on top, leaving some of left over rocks scattered randomly in the area.

Now I can read, and understand all these epitaphs that were carved on these stones.
But this is another story.